[WingWong34]

So I've been looking at the available all season tyres online and unless one buys a sShebang or Goodroad tyres they cost £150 a corner.
Plus staggered means fronts are pricier than rears.
I was intending to do 8js all round, plus I wanted to get away from run flats... by having a spare.
If I did this with staggered I'd get a spare front and an emergency-ish spare rear. But still looking at best part of £240 (2 × rear) + £450 (3× front).

So I'm also looking for alloy wheel sets and I see many sets fresh off F3x cars with 40 (instead of 45) aspect ratio tyres on... with cracks and buckles..

I'm wondering if I put on 225 50s if they'd pickup on the arches?

225 50s are 30% cheaper in premium brands.

The other ponder is insurance...

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by WingWong34

So I've been looking at the available all season tyres online and unless one buys a sShebang or Goodroad tyres they cost £150 a corner.
Plus staggered means fronts are pricier than rears.
I was intending to do 8js all round, plus I wanted to get away from run flats... by having a spare.
If I did this with staggered I'd get a spare front and an emergency-ish spare rear. But still looking at best part of £240 (2 × rear) + £450 (3× front).

So I'm also looking for alloy wheel sets and I see many sets fresh off F3x cars with 40 (instead of 45) aspect ratio tyres on... with cracks and buckles..

I'm wondering if I put on 225 50s if they'd pickup on the arches?

225 50s are 30% cheaper in premium brands.

The other ponder is insurance...

Won't work; stick with OEM sizes or go a size wider (ie 235/45/18 instead of OEM 225/45/18) on a straight set of 18x8 alloys

I run 235/45/18 Goodyear Assym6s for my summers and 235/345/18 Goodyear Vectsor Gen3 all seasons as my winters on my F31

Zero issues; car drives superbly and takes the rough, unloved/untreated roads local to me in here in Lancashire with zero issues. Tyres take the roads great and the handling is better too; better turn in etc

Tyres, like brakes, aren't an area to be cheap on; but thats your call... Decent tyres aren't expensive if you go with the more regular sizes, thats why I binned the 19" staggered alloys my F31 came on to run 18s straight away; and ditch the RFTs too

I have a decent tyre repair kit and inflator spugged away in the storage under the boot floor etc; peace of mind

No where for a spare wheel unless you want it rolling round in the boot all the time

[WhiteCollarMetalHead]

My 2015 335GT (US Build ) came with 18x8 square setup on 225/50/18 tires from factory.

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by WhiteCollarMetalHead

My 2015 335GT (US Build ) came with 18x8 square setup on 225/50/18 tires from factory.

They did! My error...

Thal help the OP more re tyres then...

WingWong34 - try Camskill for tyres also.. You'll just need to get them fitted locally

Any F3x 18x8 wheel will be fine. 397s & 405Ms come as straight sets. You could get x4 front 18x8 400Ms too etc

All F3x alloys here with tyre specs etc. Just use Chrome to translate if necessary

https://www.auto-treff.com/wcf/index...ab.wcf.article

[WingWong34]

Thanks all. Will be looking at 18x8js all round. Star spoke v spoke and turbines - although these seem a bit thin on the ground (need 5) defo no buying any 12+ spoke cleaning impossibility wheels.
Firstly though I'm going to try and get my hands on a 72.6 120 x5 hub so I can bolt it to a base and spin any used wheels i buy.. so scouring tinternet for EXY hub on the cheapo.

[Billfitz]

IME there are two varieties of AS tires: Michelin CrossClimate 2 and everything else. No, they're not cheap. So? You drive a BMW. Cheap tires are for cheap cars.
As for the aspect ratio, which you're pretty much locked into with the wheel size, the lower the ratio the harder and louder the ride and the less durable the tire and wheel. Since I live where potholes have landmark status I went with 17s.

[WingWong34]

Yeah.. I didn't consider the msport caliper issues so I'm tied to 18"+. My old e87 was great to drive on 16" winters.
There's cheap tyres.. reasonable premium and rip off premium.
I'm going to try and source bare rims.. partly because used tyres always have a slow puncture, partly because I'd want to put a new set of sensors and finally because its easier to test how straight wheels are when they're bare.

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by WingWong34

Yeah.. I didn't consider the msport caliper issues so I'm tied to 18"+. My old e87 was great to drive on 16" winters.
There's cheap tyres.. reasonable premium and rip off premium.
I'm going to try and source bare rims.. partly because used tyres always have a slow puncture, partly because I'd want to put a new set of sensors and finally because its easier to test how straight wheels are when they're bare.

FWIW I run Goodyear Vector Gen3 all seasons as my winters; they're superb and did really well in the tyre reviews that Jon does on tyrereviews.co.uk - well up there with the likes of the Michelin CrossClimates etc

I also run the Goodyear Assym6s as my summers; again they did superbly against the likes of the Michelin PS5s and they were £250 cheaper for all 4 compared to the PS5s; a huge saving!

Vredestein, Falken and Uniroyal are excellent tyres and if you didn't want to go premium (ie. Conti, Michelin etc) they're well worth looking into

Avon & Nexen can be very good too, same with Kumho

But I wouldn't run any cheaper than them personally...

For your 18s you want either 225/50/18 (BMW spec slightly stretched); 235/50/18 or 235/45/18, which is what I run and they're perfect size for the 18" alloys on my F31, maintaining a straighter sidewall/better rim protection. Or 245/40/18s that'll still give you a perfect width but not as chunky sidewall

235/45s suit me and my F31 best as I live semi-rural and our local roads are horrendous, more so the narrow country lanes and single track roads! We also go up to the Highlands a lot with my folks having property there; again those roads are not good, more so over winter!

FYI its these TPMS that I run too; OEM BMW but at a sensible price!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/125938435909

[WingWong34]

Are these tpms sensors refurbishable? Seems a waste.

[danb1979]

Originally Posted by WingWong34

Are these tpms sensors refurbishable? Seems a waste.

If they're working then don't replace them; but they do have a finite life

If they're sketchy then replace them

I replaced mine for peace of mind; both sets were fully refurbed; so made sense to do it then

[Billfitz]

Their battery life is limited, so by the time you get to your second tire change it's best to have their batteries replaced or replace them completely. You don't want to have to pull tires to replace them later.

[WingWong34]

Call me a luddite but the old average wheel speed measurement was perfectly adequate. BMW could have left that in for redundancy in the F series..

[Billfitz]

Adequate only in the sense that by comparing the wheel speeds it told you if a tire was low. It didn't warn you if they were all under filled, which results in poor fuel economy and handling and lower tire life.